The Divine Punishment, Part 2

Everything was black.

There was a light at the far end, but I couldn't move.

"Tenkei..." I heard in the distance, coming from that very light.

It was a female voice, maybe it was Emmy's.

Did that mean I was dead? No, it couldn't.

It was different from Izanagi's illusions because slowly I was starting to see and I could begin to move my first muscles.

"Tenkei!" I heard again.

I struggled to move.

My muscles were still very stiff but I had to succeed at all costs. I felt that my life depended solely on that voice. My only goal at that moment was to get closer to that faint light, that sweet voice.

Izanagi's illusions didn't allow me to move, so as I had already thought, it wasn't an illusion. It couldn't be death, either... I hoped.

I started walking towards that light, it seemed infinitely far away from how small it was, but I was wrong.

In a matter of seconds of walking, I arrived at that light.

There was a gate. A gate to a temple. Like the Japanese ones. More than a gate, it was a big red wooden "gate" supported by columns.

Maybe it was paradise...

Inside this gate, the light vanished, or rather, redistributed throughout the place.

There were golden statues of Buddha and various gods all over the place, there were lovely trees.

And there was a temple right in front. I was expecting it.

I didn't waste any time examining the statues and stuff because I headed straight for the temple.

After entering, a woman was waiting for me. She was the size of a human, but she was all white. Her skin was very white, as white as paper, and the same was true of her clothes. She looked like a fairy, but she had human features.

This woman wasted no time in asking me questions, in fact, she immediately began with her speech.

"Tenkei... Congratulations on getting this far..." she said.

I still didn't dare to speak, perhaps because I was still afraid it was a trap from Izanagi.

"....."

"This place... is the place where I was sealed." she continued.

She reminded me of someone... wait! She was next to Izanagi in the dream I had, and what she's saying matches what I saw!

Don't tell me that...

"You're... Izanami?"

"I see you're attentive, Tenkei. My big brother wasn't wrong then." She said, smiling at me.

She was just what was expected of a god. Her brother, Izanagi, was the perfect opposite.

"But wait, you weren't dead? What do you mean by sealed?" I asked her.

True, I was dead, but before I died, at the exact moment the meteor touched me, I applied my seal to the stones with the powers of the lesser gods, or whatever you call them...kamien. I divided my little remaining life energy within them."

"Tenkei... you were able to make excellent use of the power of your kamien, in part because of the teachings Acuro gave you."

"Acuro? How do you know him?"

"I've been living your life together since I've been inside the kamien of electricity."

"I see... Pardon me for asking... but I still don't trust you, can you give me proof that this isn't yet another illusion of Izanagi?"

"Sure." She replied.

She took on Emmy's appearance instantly, as if she knew her. She was perfect as I imagined her to be, perhaps she lived inside my mind, nay, my kamien.

We both laughed. Only I knew Emmy that way, so it wasn't an illusion of Izanagi at all.

Izanami was a truly perfect and friendly goddess, and I never wanted to go back to the real world. Spending time in that "paradise" was enough for me after what I had suffered.

"Tenkei. I'm sorry I wasted so much time manifesting... but this was exactly the moment I was looking for: waiting for all the kamien to come together to regain all my life energy, and also waiting for you to pass out so that your body could let down its guard to get a free pass. I need your body, Tenkei."

"M-my body? The only person who can have it is Emmy!" I said embarrassed.

"Not in that way. I need to take control of your body to fight against Izanagi. You have already done a lot, but you are not able to defeat him. Only I, with the powers of the lesser gods can, he's too strong for you."

"Okay... And how do we do that?"

"You don't have to do anything. I'll take care of everything. It'll just be a matter of you waiting here for me. This is probably the last time I'll see you because the seal I applied allows me to do this only once. So if I die we won't see each other again. If not... well then I'll come and say my last goodbye to you, Tenkei."

"I believe in you. Bye Izanami!" I wasn't afraid to greet her with a simple "bye", it seemed like we had been close for years. This was a true divine figure.

"Bye... Tenkei!"

After that, she disappeared, while I stood there, the whole time.

*Narrative shifts to third person while Tenkei remains in the Temple. *

Tenkei's body awoke immediately. What seemed like minutes in the Temple, in reality, was only a few seconds. In fact, Izanagi had not had time to regain the kamien.

Tenkei's eyes were no longer black with an electrically colored pupil but were completely black, in fact, Izanagi noticed it.

"Tenkei... you... it's not possible, how are you alive..." said Izanagi.

Izanami, meanwhile, who owned and controlled Tenkei's body, removed both the Ame-no-Nuhoko and the Ame-no-Ohabari from his belly, and, within moments, the deep wound that had formed was regenerated.

"Impossible... Where did you learn these regeneration techniques?"

"Speak... TENKEI!" shouted Izanagi, he was on a rampage. He had never been tricked like this before.

Izanami didn't seem to want to reveal her identity to her brother until he noticed it himself.

"S-sister... is that you?" he asked.

"You got it right, big brother. It's me, Izanami." She answered.

Izanagi started to cry, but it wasn't a cry of sadness, he seemed happy to see her again.

"You don't know how much I suffered because of you... You sacrificed yourself for miserable beings... I spent millions... actually billions of years by your side and even just these few days spent without you I missed you... but now I have to eliminate you... You are impure, Izanami, you preferred to sacrifice a divine entity like yours for miserable beings like humans?"

"It is you who is impure, big brother. I have sacrificed only myself, while you have sacrificed dozens of gods. Who is the impure being? Me? No kidding."

"Izanami... you and the humans... you will die together. After eliminating you once and for all I will also destroy the rest of the beasts and animals, including your beloved humans."

"I see... Well... I don't want to say it but... let's not get lost in the chatter, if you want to eliminate me, do it. I'm here." Izanami replied, with Tenkei's body.

That body had to restrict her in some way. For example, she couldn't change her appearance, while Izanagi could. In fact, he quickly became the size of a human, but still had that "marble" appearance.

He drew the divine spear to himself and also the sword. But the divine sword did not move. It was in the palm of Tenkei, aka Izanami.

"The sword stays here. It would be an unequal fight... And you want to tell me that I'm the one who's impure when you literally fought a practically unarmed kid?" asked Izanami.

"That's none of your business! Die, Little Sister!"

Izanagi, with the spear, formed a very strong supersonic light, it had created a kilometer-long hole in the ground, Izanami, who had a human body, should have died after that blow.

"You are weak, big brother," said Izanami, who, in the meantime, had dodged the attack and was ready to hit Izanagi from behind with the sword.

It cut off his head, which fell on the ground. Izanami had won.

Izanagi's body fell to the ground too, but it still seemed to be moving, with one finger he pointed to a place, to the west.

To the west was Izanagi's real body, the one from before was a mere illusion.

"You thought I would die so easily... I thought you knew me better, little sister." Said Izanagi.

"In billions of years, I have never seen you so ruthless. Come to your senses, please!" replied Izanami.

"....."

Tenkei's body became one with the fire. Izanami used the fire kamien to burn her own body infinitely, but regenerating it. In this way, she was practically untouchable.

"Izanami... All this time you've been training, haven't you? Even I can't regenerate with such speed..." said Izanagi.

"Izanagi... I'll explain why you can't win: you have too much hatred inside you."

"Hatred, huh? Hate is what makes me strong! The resentment of the beings that I created is more than justified! Don't you realize that you are killing your brother over petty scum?"

"The petty scum you speak of is the same scum who came every day to pray to us. Who gave us gifts, who populated this beautiful planet. I think of them as children, and so should you!"

"Hahaha! I will put an end to this, Izanami!" shouted Izanagi.

After that, he destroyed his precious weapon, the spear, into several small pieces, which he stuffed into his mouth.

He swallowed them.

He began to spit blood as if he had been a human and began to transform. His previously divine robes became similar to human clothes, but he had some sort of cannons under his palms.

His head became slightly larger and one eye disappeared, while the other became large and encompassed the entire upper part of his face. His nose disappeared as well and only his mouth remained.

A bubble sprouted from his stomach, the same as the tip of the spear. So he could shoot rays from there.

His legs became the consistency of the spear, which was composed of divine materials, virtually indestructible by a human body like Tenkei's, which was under Izanami's possession.

He seemed to have evolved, he had surpassed even the deities.

"....."

"What? Are you scared now? If you want, you can do it too, come on, ingest that sword! Hahaha!"

"....."

With supersonic speed, using Susanoo's perfect form, Izanami launched herself at Izanagi.

In a few tenths of a second, she had covered a distance of as much as 500 meters.

*CRASH*

The bubble on Izanagi's stomach was destroyed, the pieces scattered like glass on the ground, Tenkei's (Izanami's) fist went through Izanagi's stomach.

Like a human, he still spat blood. He couldn't move, for Izanagi, it felt like the end.

"I'm not afraid, big brother. I created these weapons, after all, I know their weaknesses." Said Izanami.

"Cough! You... I should never have trusted you... When you explained to me millions of years ago how to use the weapons to transcend the forces of the gods in extreme cases... You never told me about the weaknesses..."

"Izanagi... although we are gods... we have never trained, never reached higher levels. We always sought means and shortcuts to become stronger, just like you just did with Ame-no-Nuhoko."

Izanami began to cry, human tears.

"I inserted human DNA inside the spear and the sword. So now human blood flows in you. You see, Izanagi, the way to become more powerful is the same way you become human. Precisely because we have never trained, never toiled, unlike humans who toil day and night, despite this, you insist on eliminating them."

Izanami removed her arm from the hole she had created in his stomach and hugged him. He hugged Izanagi, his brother.

"No matter what you think, little brother. I will always love you." Izanami finally said.

"Izanami....... I love you too...little sis..." said Izanagi before disintegrating.

His essence disappeared, his container/body vanished into thin air like dust.

The creator god was completely dead.

At the same time, Tenkei's body lost life, lost consciousness again.

*Back to the first person with Tenkei*

I waited for a long time in that temple, it had been a few hours now, but I remained in the same spot. I hadn't moved an inch. I wanted to stay where Izanami had left off, hoping she would return. But I had lost all hope until a light appeared in front of my eyes. It was Izanami, in the same form she had in the first encounter.

"I-Izanami..." I said.

"Don't worry, Tenkei. It's all over now." She said.

She hugged me, but it was a very weak hug, it lasted very little, her soul disappeared.

But she had time to tell me one last thing.

"I leave the Earth in your hands... Be sure to take care of it... Danger can always show up." She said smiling and crying at the same time.

By the time I realized, I was back in my original body, I had already awakened.

When I woke up, there was nothing. Or rather, everything was there.

There was the world that I was supposed to take care of. But Izanagi was no longer there. Izanami had taken care of it. But I knew it. After all, we had a shared body, so the memories too.

"Thank you Izanagi," I said, looking up into the sky.

And I walked towards the reconstruction of the world.